摘　要

迄今为止，语言学家对委婉语做了大量的研究。然而对于委婉语在教学中的应用的研究却很匮乏，所以本文意在探讨委婉语在英语教学中的语用功能及应用。本文分为四个主要内容。首先，简单介绍委婉语的含义及特征。其次，从避讳，礼貌，掩饰，美化四个方面论述委婉语的语用功能。再者，分析委婉语在英语教学中的应用，包括提高学生使用委婉语的能力；培养学生跨文化意识；作为一种鼓励学习的手段以及展示教师言传身教的优势。最后，对全文进行简单小结。本文主要是让人们充分认识到委婉语在英语教学中的重要意义，不仅是让教师和学生明白学习委婉语的必要性，还有让教师充分意识到在教学中使用委婉语对教学的积极影响。

关键词：委婉语；语用功能；应用；英语教学

Abstract

So far, a lot of researches about euphemisms have been done by the scholars. However, there were few researches about the applications in the English teaching. Therefore, the paper attempts to discuss the pragmatic functions and applications of euphemism in the English teaching. The paper includes four parts. First, the paper briefly introduces the definition and characteristics of euphemism. Second, the paper makes a research on the pragmatic functions of euphemism. It includes: to avoid offence; to be polite; to disguise fact; and to beautify the expressions. Third, the paper mainly analyzes the applications of euphemism in English teaching. Such as: improving the students’ competence of using euphemism, cultivating the students’ cross-cultural awareness, being a way of encouragement for students to study and showing the advantage of teaching by precept and example. At last, the paper makes a summary about the usage of euphemism. The paper mainly appeals to recognizing the significance of euphemism in English teaching. It means that the teachers and students not only see the importance of euphemism, but also make the teachers understand the positive effect of using euphemism in English teaching.

Key words: euphemism; pragmatic function; application; English teaching

1 Introduction
Euphemism, as a lingual and cultural phenomenon, plays an important role in communication. It stands for the quality of a person, even a country. People usually use the euphemism to avoid taboos, or to be polite. It is quite a good tool to smooth the interpersonal relationship and a good way to show the respect to others. When talking about the topics, such as the death, the pregnancy, the sex and so on, people usually do not speak directly. They will choose the euphemism instead. In addition, people speak euphemism when it is concerned to economy, politics, money, and war, etc. Obviously, the euphemism is indispensable in the society. With the popularity of the globalization, the culture is ever-changing, which leads to the change of euphemism.